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Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) frequently publishes updates, press releases, and other forms of communication about its work in more than 60 countries around the world. See the list below for the most recent updates or search by location, topic, or year.

The spread of hepatitis E in Niger’s Diffa region has slowed since Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) first began detecting and treating cases in early 2017, and the subsequent declaration of the outbreak by the Ministry of Health (MoH) in mid-April. Through a combination of active case finding, quicker diagnoses, a medical protocol, and working with the community through a network of volunteers, the case fatality rate has fallen.

A hepatitis E outbreak originating in Niger has spread to northeastern Nigeria, affecting hundreds of people in Ngala camp for internally displaced people. The highly contagious disease has spread quickly through the camp due to poor living conditions and flooding.

Two months after the declaration of a hepatitis E outbreak in Niger’s Diffa region, the humanitarian response is still lacking due to insufficient resources and coordination between actors. The outbreak is taking a heavy toll on some of the area’s most vulnerable people, especially pregnant women and refugees and internally displaced people who fled conflict between Boko Haram and armies in the region.

Nigeria and Niger are once again facing severe outbreaks of meningitis C. Both countries are part of Africa's "meningitis belt," a region stretching across the continent from Senegal to Ethiopia that is particularly affected by the disease during the annual dry season. Though outbreaks of meningitis are frequent in this area, slow reactions and shortages of vaccines often hamper responses. From December 13, 2016, to May 14, 2017, 13,943 suspected cases and 1,112 deaths from meningitis were reported in 24 states in Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has deployed several emergency teams to Niger to contain a meningitis outbreak that has killed 179 people since the beginning of the year. Working closely with Niger’s Ministry of Public Health, MSF teams have vaccinated more than 358,800 people in the most affected areas while continuing to monitor at-risk areas and provide medical care to those affected by the disease. So far, the number of meningitis cases recorded across Niger this year has almost doubled compared to 2016 during the same period.

Fighting between Boko Haram and militaries from the areas around southeastern Niger has led to more than 240,000 displaced people and refugees taking shelter in Niger's Diffa region. A third of the displaced people in Diffa have been forced to abandon their homes two or more times due to violence in the last few years. Around the towns of Garin Wazan and Kintchandi, many of the tens of thousands of people who fled Bosso, a town near the Nigeria border last June, have sought safety.

For more than three years, ongoing conflict between Boko Haram and the armies in the Lake Chad region has taken a heavy toll on civilian populations. Many have fled their homes and left everything behind to find refuge in other villages and eventually across borders. Authorities report that there are now more than 240,000 displaced people in southeastern Niger’s Diffa region, bordered by Chad and Nigeria. The majority of them were driven from home by violence.

For more than three years, ongoing conflict between Boko Haram and the armies in the Lake Chad region has taken a heavy toll on civilian populations. Many have fled their homes and left everything behind to find refuge in other villages and eventually across borders. Authorities report that there are now more than 240,000 displaced people in southeastern Niger’s Diffa region, bordered by Chad and Nigeria. The majority of them were driven from home by violence.